Baira certificate not required for recruiting licence

Aspirant private recruiting agencies will not require certification from Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) anymore to get licence for sending job seekers overseas.

Also, they will not have to be a member of Baira for engaging in the process of manpower export, according to an order of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) dated April 9.

Bangladesh earns more than $12bn annually from manpower exports.

Baira Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury declined to make any comment on the issue yesterday as he was yet to be notified by the government.

BMET Director for immigration Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that the order had been issued following instructions from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment.

The official said submitting the Baira certificate had been a customary practice for those who applied for recruiting licence.

The government issued the order in the face of Baira’s strike since April 8. The association had been refraining from all activities of sending workers abroad and protesting the government move to send workers to Malaysia under its own arrangement at a low migration cost.

The government has so far sent 140 workers to Malaysia at a cost of Tk33,000 each.

After one week, however, Baira withdrew its strike.

BMET Director General Shamsun Nahar yesterday said over phone: “We have issued the order so private recruiting agents can understand that they can send workers abroad without Baira’s membership.”

The Immigration Ordinance 1982 stipulates that Baira membership is not mandatory for engaging in sending jobs-seekers overseas.

According to the BMET, there are more than 1,200 recruiting agencies dealing with overseas employment and of them about 800 are active now.

In 2008, the government raised the ceiling of the deposit for getting overseas recruitment licence from Tk650,000 to Tk1.5m. The amount was kept as an FDR and private recruiters would get interest from it, an official said.

The official added that if a migrant worker gets in trouble, he or she would to be compensated from the deposit.